Community Nature Reserve, originally known as Felixstowe's Community Nature Reserve, is a community-based conservation initiative established in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, in May 2015. It promotes wildlife-friendly gardening and encourages residents to create connected habitats across private gardens, allotments and other small green spaces.
History
Felixstowe's Community Nature Reserve was established in May 2015 by Dr Adrian Cooper and local volunteers. The project was developed as a response to concerns about declining wildlife populations and sought to enable residents to participate in conservation without needing access to large areas of land.
Rather than establishing a single area of protected land, the project encouraged participants to dedicate at least three square yards of their gardens or allotments to wildlife-friendly features. Suggested measures included planting flowers for pollinators, installing bird feeders and nesting boxes, and creating habitats for hedgehogs and insects.
The initiative used social media, community meetings and educational films to encourage participation. It also sought to involve young people in conservation and to share wildlife-friendly gardening advice with residents.
The project attracted wider attention as an example of community-led conservation. In December 2016, The Guardian included the initiative in its review of wildlife developments during the year, describing how Adrian Cooper had used Facebook to establish a community nature reserve in Felixstowe.
In October 2023, The Guardian again described the Felixstowe initiative while reporting on rewilding projects across the United Kingdom. The article outlined its network of gardens, allotments, window boxes and balconies, and the encouragement given to participants to create wildlife-friendly habitats.
Activities
The project promotes practical conservation measures that can be undertaken by households in small outdoor spaces. These include growing pollinator-friendly plants, providing nesting opportunities for birds, creating wildlife ponds and leaving areas of gardens to grow more naturally.
The initiative has also been associated with citizen science. In April 2018, the Felixstowe Citizen Science Group was established to collect and analyse wildlife observations. Its activities have included mapping hedgehog sightings and examining patterns in bird observations in local gardens.
National expansion
The Community Nature Reserve subsequently expanded beyond its origins in Felixstowe to develop a UK-wide network of wildlife-friendly gardens. The initiative encourages households across the country to contribute to conservation by creating habitats for wildlife in their own outdoor spaces.
By October 2026, the national initiative had reached 30,000 registered gardens across the United Kingdom.
The national initiative was co-founded by British conservationist Luke Smout, building on the community-based conservation model developed in Felixstowe.
